"No one remembers seeing anything quite like this in independent India." So began the India Today report on the fourth Dharma Sansad in Delhi in 1991, organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad's head Ashok Singhal. Coming right after the hugely successful Ram Rath Yatra – the culmination of a movement that also brought the Bharatiya Janata Party back to the national forefront – the Delhi gathering was truly the high point of Ashok Singhal's long career.

Singhal began the speeches in front of a crowd of more than three lakh people (the VHP says there were 25 lakh), at Delhi's Boat Club. The organisation claims it was the biggest collection of people in one place since independence, prompting the Boat Club to ban rallies. Standing in front of this massive audience, Singhal – who had spent the previous decade bringing together the various arms of political Hinduism onto one stage – made it clear that he would have his temple.

"You may build your mosques, but if you say that you want to build them where Ram was born, where Krishna was born, where Shankar comes from, then you must know, in this country, we cannot have mosques there. The temple will be built," Singhal said.

On Tuesday, never having seen his temple being built and never having been given proper credit for revitalising the BJP, Singhal died. He was 89.